3 Jul 2010

Alert in Pakistan after bombing at shrine

2:53 pm on 3 July 2010

Police are on high alert across Pakistan after a suicide attack on a Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.

Security has been increased in Lahore and at Sufi shrines across the country, after 42 people died at the Data Darbar shrine on Thursday.

Protesters have demonstrated outside the shrine, in anger at what they say were lax security measures.

The BBC reports wider demonstrations are expected later in the day, after Friday prayers.

The shrine holds the remains of a Persian Sufi saint, Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery.

No group has yet said it carried out the attack. The first bomb was set off in an underground area. The second was detonated upstairs as people fled. Ballbearings were used to maximise the casualities.